If you've been waiting for the prices of liquid crystal
display (LCD) monitors to come tumbling down, there's good news
and bad news. The good news is, you can buy one of these
thin-profile monitors for less than $1,000. The bad news is, the
monitors in this lower-end category should be selling for around
$500 or less by now--but they're not. What happened?

"Prices have come down dramatically in the past two years.
Five years ago, our first LCD model was a 13-inch monitor that cost
$13,000," says Chris Connery, product-line manager for
NEC's personal-display division in Itasca, Illinois. "Two
years ago, we could see going head-to-head with the prices on
traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, but the Asian market
almost dried up. All LCDs are made in Japan and Korea, and demand
outstripped supply, pushing up prices. The popularity of laptops,
PDAs and similar products that use flat-panel technology swamped
manufacturers. However, the Taiwanese are coming on board now,
opening new factories, so next year we should see prices come down
again, but not until the third quarter."

Measuring 2 or 3 inches in depth (a far cry from CRTs that
occupy an average of 16 inches on your desk), flat-panel models
have several other advantages over their bulky brothers: Their
viewing angle is much wider, so several people can see the screen
from different angles at the same time; they can be wall-mounted
and, using a mounting arm, turned to face any direction (great for
spreadsheets and Web surfing); they don't emit light, so static
electricity doesn't build up and attract dust; and many have
on-screen, touch-panel menu controls for adjustments. They are also
brighter and flicker-free, and their power needs are substantially
lower. An LCD can also weigh up to 25 pounds less than a CRT.

Do all these advantages mean it's time to switch? By
shopping around, you can buy a CRT for as little as $300 these
days. If you use your computer mostly for text documents and you
have plenty of room on your desk, you may think twice about
investing in an LCD now, and instead wait until next year, when
that magic $500-and-under price tag is expected to become a
reality.

These days, LCDs are available with analog, like CRTs, or
digital technology. Analog makes it easy to connect a monitor to a
standard PC. You simply plug it in to the correct port and use it.
With most digital LCDs, you must buy a graphics adaptor with a
digital signal connection to hook up the monitor to your PC, which
can add $100 or more to the cost.

Connery believes the difference in quality between analog and
digital is debatable. "The average person can't tell that
digital is more crisp, and special graphics cards add to your
cost," he contends. "At the moment, digital waxes and
wanes are due to [the lack of] a unified standard, which is in the
process of being established worldwide so we won't need special
cards down the road."

Traditionally, PCs have had to change the image signal going to
display screens from a native digital format to an analog format
because CRT monitors use analog signals to produce on-screen
images. Although LCD monitors require a digital signal, the PC
industry had created an analog conversion standard in answer to the
huge number of CRT monitors already on the market. To ensure
plug-and-play compatibility with computers, LCD manufacturers
produced flat-panel monitors that reconverted the signal back to a
digital format compatible with LCD screens.

Compaq's standard for digital LCDs, called Digital Video
Interface (DVI), may soon put an end to this issue. In the coming
months, it's likely you'll be hearing more about DVI, as
it's en route to becoming a universal standard for digital LCDs
by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA).

Another feature on an increasing number of monitors is USB
compatability. USB is an interface for peripherals that allows for
a data stream up to 10 times broader than what can be accomplished
through a standard serial port, as well as the ability to
"daisy-chain" peripherals together through a USB hub.

When purchasing an LCD monitor, there are a variety of other
options to consider. Even those with lower price tags contain some
innovative features. For example, Samsung's SyncMaster 530 TFT
sits on a multimedia stand with built-in stereo speakers and a
microphone, has an optional touch-screen and protective glass, plus
zoom control to expand screen images two, four or eight times their
size. Princeton's 14-inch DPP500 model includes a digital
interface so you won't need a special card; an antiglare, hard
screen coating; and a 48-hour advance replacement program for the
first year. An upgraded version, the DPP550 ($999 street), has a
15-inch screen.

CTX Opto's PanoView 741 LCD flat-panel monitor turns in two
directions, while its upgraded version, the 751, tilts up, down and
sideways. Both are PC-, Mac- and VESA-compatible, with a USB hub.
Compaq's FP700 sits on a flip-out stand, like a photo frame,
and NEC's MultiSync LCD1500M comes with four USB ports so you
can connect peripherals such as a videoconferencing camera,
keyboards, scanners and mice; hot-swappable capability (meaning you
can plug in and out without turning the computer off); and
front-mounted stereo speakers on the monitor panel.

When shopping for an LCD, request an in-store demonstration and
look at these features:

Brightness. Measured in candlelights per meter and
referred to as "nits." The higher the number of nits, the
brighter the image.

Resolution. Measures the clarity of an image in
pixels-per-inch. The higher the resolution, the sharper the
image.

Viewing angles.

Digital or analog.

Rotational capabilities from traditional landscape to
portrait. Some monitors can be turned sideways to get a full
portrait view of an image, or a full Web page. Especially
convenient in videoconferencing.

Mounting flexibility to hang on a wall or suspend from a
swing-arm or rest on a desk.

Touchscreens for adjustment controls and menus.

Automatic save and reset for user controls.

Security locks so the monitor can't be removed from
its base.

Jill Amadio is a freelance writer in Newport Beach,
California, who has covered technology for nine years.